New World Provides Launch Server List And Rollout Schedule (Update: Character Name Info)

New World is launching in just four days -- it’s so close! That makes it only logical for Amazon to begin talking servers, which is the kind of stuff players need to know if they’re planning to hop in with their friends at the start.

The good news is that we now know server names and regions – and in some cases the preferred languages of said servers. The rest of the news is probably good or bad depending on who you are, and a portion of it is just a little confusing.

At launch, servers will be divided into five regions (all hosted on AWS) consisting of the following:

• 67 EU – Recommended languages: 8 German & English, 5 French & English, 2 Spanish & English, 1 Italian & English
• 26 South America – Recommended languages: 3 Spanish & English
• 50 US East – Recommended languages: 1 Spanish & English
• 22 US West – Recommended languages: 1 Spanish & English
• 22 Australia

Each server is intended to hold thousands of players and Amazon notes that they have additional servers in reserve just in case.

The other important thing to note is the server rollout. Amazon is launching the servers on a rolling system, starting with the EU and rolling around to the US West. Generally, these will be 8 AM region time, with the exception of Australia, which will launch at 9 PM local time to assure they don’t get pushed out onto a different day from everyone else.

So the schedule is as follows:

• 8AM CEST EU Servers will launch (9/27 at 11pm PT)
• 8AM BRT South American Servers will launch (9/28 4am PT)
• 9PM AEST Australian Servers will launch (9/28 4am PT)
• 8AM ET NA East Coast Server will launch (9/28 at 5am PT)
• 8AM PT NA West Coast Servers will launch

As for the confusing part I mentioned, there is currently some discussion going on in the community around character names: particularly, whether names will be globally unique, meaning that when someone claims the name, no one else, no matter the server they’re playing on, can claim it. Players are doubly concerned this might be the case that, with a server rollout like this, one region will have first dibs at names.

Don’t freak out just yet. Amazon hasn’t actually stated this is the case and even players who have inquired with Amazon Help have been told it’s not something that’s confirmed and they’re not even sure. Granted, one help person apparently stated the opposite, but since there’s not been an official confirmation, it’s probably not worth getting upset over just yet.

UPDATE:

As of sometime yesterday (after this post went up) a member of Amazon Games Staff posted a response on Reddit explaining how character and company names will work in New World. There's a bunch of caveats to this, but the general gist is that names are in fact global at present and will be first come first served. They will also be locked to an account for a short amount of time after a character is deleted. Company names are global as well, but not locked to an account.

If you're a player intending to play on one of the later launching servers, there is the option of creating a character on ANY AVAILABLE server, without even entering the game. This means that if you're playing on US West, it's possible to create a character on an EU server and delete it later on when you're ready to create the character on your server of choice.

Of course, this probably also means that EU servers are going to be hammered to hell and back by everyone trying to claim their name before someone else can get it. So, we'll see how it goes.